Severe trauma to the human body often involves significant loss of body fluids. In addition, a variety of illnesses, whether microbial or viral cause severe diarrhea followed by dehydration and ion imbalance. In the absence of rapid rehydration an individual will quickly die.
The most rapid, and sometimes the only practical method for rehydrating an individual is injection of an intravenous saline or dextrose solution. Such treatment is quite common and readily obtained in metropolitan areas where apparatus for purifying water to intravenously injectable quality, and for storing prepared intravenous solutions are readily available. However, in many areas of the world such facilities are not available and the problem of providing substantial quantities of intravenous solutions on short notice has not been adequately resolved. In addition, various activities which tend to occur in remote areas, such as military operations or space exploration expose individuals to the possibility of traumatic injury or the sudden onset of dehydrating illnesses where prepared, sterilized water, intravenous solutions, or solution preparation equipment are not available.
There are two particular problems which are associated with providing intravenous solutions in the field. The first problem involves the production of injectable quality water for the preparation of an intravenous solution The second involves the storage of such solutions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,684 to Knox et al. these problems are addresses by providing a flexible intravenous fluid bag having two separate compartments. In a first compartment, self sealing ports are provided for the introduction of sterile water. A powdered reagent is stored in the second compartment. After sterile water is introduced into the first chamber, a seal between the two chambers is ruptured so that the sterile water can mix with the reagent. The Knox apparatus avoids some of the problems associated with crystal formations or clumping of reagents, and evaporation of the liquid component of the resulting solution through the vinyl sidewalls of the intravenous pack because the sterile water is introduced into the bag at the time of use. However, a source of injectable quality water must be available at the point of use, and in military operations, third world countries, etc. such sterile water sources are often unavailable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,920 to Kaufman et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,056 to Ikeda also disclose multi-compartment intravenous bags for mixing sterile water with a powdered reagent.
The present state of the art for producing potable or injectable quality water is well developed. A typical apparatus describing the purification steps to produce ultra pure water for research in commercial applications is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,912 to Berry, III et al. The standards for potable water are set forth in 40 CFR .sctn..sctn.141.11 et seq. However, potable quality water is not sufficiently pure for injection into the human body. In addition to removal of the toxins, as set forth in 40 CFR et sec, infectious biological agents such as microscopic plants, bacteria, viruses and pyrogens having particle sizes as small as 0.002 .mu.m must be removed. Particle size as small as 0.002 .mu.m is approximately at the maximum effectiveness of ultra filtration techniques.
Portable microfiltration apparatus are available for campers which are capable of filtering out most bacteria to a particle size of approximately 0.2 .mu.m. Water at this purity level is potable but is not suitable for injection to the human body. Therefore, there is no portable ultra filtration device which can produce injectable quality water for use with the above described compartmentalized intravenous mixing bags. As a result, there is no effective way to prepare intravenous solutions in the field in the absence of an injectable quality water source.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus which allow the preparation of various intravenous solutions in the field without access to sources of ultra pure, injectable quality water, or storage facilities for premixed intravenous solutions.